Poverty is when people do not have access to what they require for an acceptable standard of living.

It's a funny term really. In a lot of ways, standard of living is pretty subjective. Depending on who you are and where you live, the criteria on which you judge standard of living are going to be different. What kind of things are essential? A car? An Education? Clean water?

A case can be made for all of them. In a hypothetical society where a car is the only feasible means of transport, not having access to one would be living in poverty. Education is one of the most important aspects of individual development. Clean water access is a basic human need.

Whether we like it or not, it serves a valuable social function. If everyone lived in relative comfort no matter what, there would be little to encourage people to succeed. I know I have seen people living in various degrees of poverty and thought to myself "I don't ever want to have to be in this position".

That's not attaching any blame or fault towards those who do live in poverty. The reasons for someone living in poverty are numerate and complicated, and often outside of their control. Maybe things would be better if the factors that determined whether someone lived in poverty had less to do with where they were born and more to do with who they are.

On an international level, it seems like it should be fairly simple to put into motion steps to reduce absolute poverty pretty drastically. Simple, but I guess not easy. It's just politics and economics. We have enough economists and politicians that we really should be able to resolve any political and economic challenge. I don't know what blend of free market economies, fair trade, international development, anarchism, science, communism, tax, infrastructure development, and just being nice is needed to reduce poverty in the areas worst effected by it, but I imagine that lots of people do know how to work it out. It's just about money.

Maybe I am under thinking it.

I don't really know what to suggest to you. I like to use SavyGamer to have a positive impact on the world whenever I can, but this isn't a problem I have the solution to. I don't know what I should do.

Is there anything that I should be doing?

There are lots of charities, but I've certainly not got enough spare money to give lots to charities, and charities themselves are kind of broken. I do volunteer work for Oxfam when I have the time, but I do that because I enjoy it, not because I think I am fixing the world.

I buy lots of fair trade stuff, but I don't really know how much of a difference that makes.

Origin of SavyGamer

The idea behind SavyGamer is simple: Everyone has a budget and the best way to push that budget is to shop smart.

There are tonnes of pricebots about (froogle, kelkoo, you know them all) and I'm not about to substitute them, they do a fine job. I post what I think are quality deals, good games/gaming related equipment that is a good deal at the asking price.

Where applicable, I will post referral links. These links will lead to me getting commission from the retailers, often varying between 1 and 10%. There is no change in price for you, but if you prefer not to use referral links then you only need to browse the homepage of the retailer and search for the item.

If you ever want to submit a deal, or request a good deal on a specific game, email me at LewieP@savygamer.co.uk, and I will do my best to help you out.